I have quite a lot to write on this subject, sort of a general update about what's coming up next, and what's in the works for later in the year. I'll probably tackle this over several different messages.

We have quite a few items lined-up that are really close to completion. The first two were intended for the end of 2007 but didn't quite make it. A brief comment after each.

Austere | Solyaris (Hypnos, Jan 2008)

This is a creative peak for this much-overlooked ambient duo, their first release on Hypnos, following their Hypnos Secret Sounds album Pulse in 2007. It will be the next Hypnos release, with the exact date subject to agreement between the label and the artists, relative to their release of a big retrospective box-set.

M. Griffin | Fabrications (Hypnos, early 2008)

This one is down to the final editing, and would have been done by now if not for all the unexpected flurry of activity surrounding the move of the Hypnos web site to a new server. Ah well, life intrudes, and this is at the final stages of editing, 99% done and ready for production within a week or so.

Various Artists | Message From a Subatomic World (Hypnos compilation, early 2008)

This is the "sister project" to the recently-released Hypnos compilation, Sounds of a Universe Overheard, and should meet or exceed the high standard set by that recording. To compare the second compilation to the first, I'd say the second is perhaps a bit more abstract and deep-space, more mysterious and strange, whereas the first is a bit more musical and structured overall.

A fairly recent addition to the roster of releases, but when we heard Evan's latest recording, a sharply resonant and multi-layered set of repeating loops that develop into a complex and slowly-musical drone structure, we couldn't resist it. We'll have more information and sound clips from this one soon, and it should be released in February, but here's a glimpse of the cover for now. It will be a bit of a departure for the Secret Sounds imprint -- by special agreement with the artist, this album will be released on standard pressed CDs, not CDRs, and the limited edition size will be larger.

We don't have final approval on the cover art yet, but this too will be a departure for the Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint in that it will be a two disc set. Sense is an alter-ego of Robert Logan, who releases experimental electronic music under his full name, including the truly amazing debut CD Cognessence (see here: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=30450). This album careens from drone ambient, to churning, confrontational Aphex Twin style rhythms, with perhaps more rich and diverse sound content than any album we've ever released. Normally we'd have reservations about releasing a double CD by a young, emerging artist but this one justifies its duration without question. We look forward to sharing samples with everyone very soon, and the release should occur later in January.

Here are a couple of things worth mentioning, that I didn't include above because... they're not new albums.

Robert Rich | Somnium (dvd)

We're re-pressing the most popular disc we've ever released, Robert Rich's epic sleep concert experience, Somnium, a 7-hour recording on a video DVD (no picture content, just sound) that plays on an ordinary DVD player. This one has only been out of print for a few months, but both Hypnos and Robert agree that it needs to be put back in print, as demand continues to be significant even after 2,000 copies sold.

Jeff Pearce | Daylight Slowly

This 1998 album sold out 4-5 years ago, and Jeff Pearce felt it would be OK to let it stay out of print for a while, and allow demand to build back up again. We didn't intend to leave it unavailable for so long, though, and we're going to get some more copies made. And also... I've created new cover artwork! We both (Jeff and I) always liked the original Daylight Slowly cover but it didn't seem to fit with the brighter and more luminous images on his other Hypnos CDs. I was glad to have a chance to re-work it.

We don't have exact release dates on either of these, as there are small details to be worked-out before the re-pressing can begin, but I would say no later than the end of February we should have copies of both of these ready to sell.

The name "Sound of Silence" was and is not in reference at all to the Paul Simon penned and Simon & Garfunkel recorded song "Sounds of Silence" but was released only after (thanks to our pal Chip) and we do think Simon is brilliant, as is that song and that S&G album. The "Unnatural History" reference is specific in honour to Coil and their CD compilations of rare tracks released throughout their career.

The "Sound of Silence I" box set will be release on Fri 18 Jan 2008 at 2:13AM, which is our 10th Anniversary since we "officially formed" as a group. It contains a lot in an 8 x 8 x 1/2" (220 x 220 x 20mm) box: tracks from group projects, the Dark Duck Drone Download Project, compilations, soundtrack projects, etc. as well as one "live" recording and three unreleased tracks that will only be available in this box set. They are all in 320Kbs CBR MP3 format stored on a SanDisk card, and come with a simple but very functional and usable MP3 player with earbud headphones and a USB cable that uses one AA battery. You can use the player with other SanDisk cards or pull our musick from this one and load something worth listening to (the player has no built-in memory.)

The box set also contains four random photos (from sixteen total, including one of the current band, and one of when we met before we formed the band), a copy of our annoying, snotty "manifesto" which we signed 10 years ago from the date/time above, and also, unique to each box, a 5" (120mm) 78 RPM recording - the electronic / drone musick on every disc is absolutely unique and was recorded by etching with an Emily Berliner recorder. There are also other treats, including the checklist to make sure everything is there.

Box set artwork and photography provided by our pal Henk Zweering and is quite beautiful.

Hypnos will be carrying this release at some point and it will be available from us after the date/time above.

Thanks for your patience with "Solyaris" and as always and ever, Thanks for Listening.

We just wanted to welcome Evan, aka blue:tech, to the Hypnos roster! We have his first two blue:tech CDs from MP3.com if anyone wants to buy them - we have 2-3 copies of each, back in the MP3.com days, we spent all the $$$ we earned buying CDs from other MP3.com artists.

Congrats Evan! This will be a great release in a series of them, we're sure!

Some time during 2008, Hypnos will be re-releasing this album, originally released by the Stella Maris label. "Nebula" is an ambient supergroup of sorts, featuring Oophoi, Tau Ceti, Mathias Grassow, Klaus Wiese, Lorenzo Pierobon, Luna, and Mauro Malgrande. OK, I'll admit to not having any idea who those last 3 are, but the first 4 are pretty significant! This is a beautiful, ethereal and abstract ambient recording, which certainly deserved greater attention than it received prior to the demise of Stella Maris (which existed only long enough to release 2 Nebula albums). For more information about the original release, look here: http://www.discogs.com/release/740659

Various Artists | Echoes of Polyhymnia

Hypnos manager (and artist) Lena will be curating this specially-themed compilation which gathers an assortment of ambient & atmospheric sound works from around the world. This project is already partially complete (though some spots on the roster may still be open so if you're a female and you're making cool ambient music, get in touch), and will end up revealing a totally new angle on ambient music. Ranging from ethereal to dark to pretty to spooky to melodic, we think this album will have solid musical and soundscape content beyond just the curiosity and "I've never seen that before" factor of the theme.

Various Artists | Nevertime

It's been mentioned here on the Hypnos Forum several times that one of our goals for the coming year is to revitalize the Binary sub-label, and further to redefine it to some degree. One big step toward this end will be this upcoming various-artists compilation, for which we'll begin accepting submissions starting in February, which will emphasize a more modern and edgy style of electronic music, ranging from minimal, pulsing techno to what some call electronica and some call IDM, to glitch and minimalism. We hope to get a strong and diverse selection of artists to take part, and this will serve as a sort of announcement to the world that Binary intends to get into the middle of things, and explore the cutting edge of 21st century rhythmic electronic music.

Viridian Sun | As-Yet-Untitled album

It has been a long hiatus since the last-released studio album by Viridian Sun. Perihelion came out in 1999, and the more recent Live Paris Theater was, you guessed it, a live recording. In between was a never-released third studio album (which may still subsequently come out, later) but the guys in VS decided the best way forward was to record something entirely new and release it without delay, before revisiting 2001-2 works that remain on the shelf. The Viridian Sun approach of live-in-studio improvisation continues, and the new tracks have a warm and organic quality, deriving from guitar and bass this time, with synthesizers entirely absent.

M. Griffin & Various Artists | Vapors and Magnetism

Yet another "first" or new direction for us, Vapors and Magnetism will be a video DVD, combining abstract video experiments with exclusive ambient music tracks. The idea of combining sound with video art is one we intend to pursue to a greater degree in the future, and we would like to release multiple video DVD releases every year. We think abstract video and abstract music go great together!

Some of the other things coming in 2008 don't yet have titles or release dates, and some might only be ideas or proposals at this point. That's how a record label work -- it's a sort of assembly line, and the stuff at the end of the line, near the front door of the factory, is almost finished and looks recognizably like a final product. Those are the projects in the "part A" posting up at the top.

The stuff earlier on the assembly line may have major parts missing (like a CD with no cover image or no title, or an undetermined track listing). That's the "part B" posting, projects that aren't quite ready or complete but most of the way there.

Way back toward the beginning of the assembly line, you have pieces and parts, and before that, just sketches and ideas. That's what I'll talk about here. Almost all of these things will be worked-on during 2008, many will be released this year, but some will not be finished until 2009 or even later.

MORE VIRIDIAN SUN

First, I mentioned in "part B" regarding the new Viridian Sun album, that VS recorded a full album's worth of material in 2001-2002 or so, and it just ended up never being finished all the way. It had nothing to do with the quality being poor, or lack of interest in the project by the duo. It was more about people being busy, and delays happening, and procrastination, and when you leave something up on the shelf for long enough, you forget about it and work on other things. The good news is, there's another Viridian Sun album that can be polished up out of these materials with relatively little effort, and once these new 2007-2008 tracks are released as a CD, there is a very good chance that this "missing" Viridian Sun album will be released one way or another.... maybe on Hypnos Secret Sounds, maybe as a regular Hypnos album.

M. GRIFFIN AND _____

Second, I personally am planning to undertake two separate collaborations with well-known artists, both of whom have released multiple CDs on the Hypnos label previously. I won't announce these or talk about them too much (they're totally separate projects) until they have moved forward a little bit, and not a note or a sound has been recorded in either case. I know from past experience that sometimes (like the newest Viridian Sun efforts), the decision to collaborate results in a nearly-complete album almost immediately, whereas other times the decision to collaborate can stretch out into planning, and tenative efforts, and a bit of give and take and various false starts... and before you know it, a year is gone and there's not much that looks or sounds like an "album" in sight. So, that's why I'm not talking about these yet, not because I lack faith in the abilities or the artistry of both of my friends and collaborators, but because I don't want to add pressure to the process until there's something more substantial to support it.

BINARY EXPLORER SERIES

Very soon after getting underway the Binary compilation Nevertime (see above, part B), we plan to launch a new series called Binary Explorer Series. Simply put, Binary Explorer Series is to Binary, as Hypnos Secret Sounds is to Hypnos. We feel that the HSS imprint has been a great success, has exposed many new artists to Hypnos listeners, and vice versa, allowing us to change the threshold at which we consider something for release on our label. Binary Explorer Series is intended to do the same thing, to give us a running start toward the regular and frequent releasing of electronica and minimal techno and IDM and rhythmic electronic experimentation... starting where the Nevertime compilation left off and running off in a few new directions, quickly. We'll very possibly be releasing full-length or EP-length discs by a participants in the Nevertime comp, as well as possibly taking on BES releases by people who never took part in the compilation. After the first 3-6 months we'll shift the emphasis more toward Binary "proper" and slightly away from Binary Explorer Series, but this sub-label will be a good way for us to quickly define what we're trying to do by releasing several recordings in a fairly short time.

BINARY AKA HYPNOS/BINARY

We're very much interested in beginning to strengthen and diversify the Binary sub-label starting this year. Here at Hypnos HQ, we're every bit as interested in rhythmic & experimental electronic, as we are in ambient & atmospheric sounds. We'd love to start using Binary (and the just-mentioned Binary Explorer Series sub-label) to explore those forms. Our goal is that eventually, within a year or two, Binary should be at a level of standing and emphasis equal to Hypnos itself... maybe at some point we'll even create an entirely separate but equal web site for the Binary label. For now, we'll start out with the compilation, and we'll make major efforts to associate Binary with the right kind of artists so we can release an ever-greater number of interesting and worthwhile recordings.

NEW ONLINE STORE

The Hypnos Online Store has been a very successful and long-lived internet store, and we have no intention of shutting it down until we have something better to offer. For at least the next year, The Hypnos Online Store will go on exactly as it is now (except with an ever-expanding selection of music to offer). Some time during 2008, though, we will roll out a new internet music store that will exist in parallel to the Hypnos store, and probably eventually be its replacement. The new music site will offer downloads of digital music files, in addition to CD sales, and will represent a wider range of genres, and a deeper stock, than the Hypnos store does now. Right now, the Hypnos store has available something like 500-600 titles, almost entirely focused on the ambient, atmospheric and minimalist genres. Eventually we would like to broaden out to carry even more sounds, primarily to better serve our existing customers (because we know most of you listen to other styles of music) but also to be able to reach potential new customers. The goal is to list over 1,000 recordings between the two stores (there will be much overlap at first) by the end of the year, and 2,500 different titles by the end of 2009. At some point, carrying all this different, diverse music, the imprint of the "Hypnos" name on the store becomes misleading or irrelevant -- if we're selling psy-trance or glitch or minimal modern classical, what does the ambient label Hypnos have to do with that? And if people come to the Hypnos store to find things that are similar to Hypnos, would they feel misled if the store with the Hypnos name on it, starts selling music that has less and less to do with the Hypnos sound? We have already purchased the internet domain where this store will be located (it will not be a label web site with a store added on, but a domain entirely dedicated to the online store, the way amazon.com is entirely about amazon's store and nothing else) and will announce the domain and put a placeholder/announcement once we have finalized the logo.

There are more items to be added, but this has been a lot of typing today, and this should be more than enough "2008 plans" for now. Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far!

Yesterday when I posted the cover images for the Sense and Nebula discs, those were posted as "rough draft" images that had not been approved by the respective artists. Since that time, both cover images have been approved and are now the final cover artwork for both discs.

Also, the new, upcoming web store mentioned in the last big update, can now be made public -- not that there's a store or anything too compelling there yet. I just didn't want to mention the new web site and have a bunch of people type in the address out of curiosity, and receive an error message. There's at least a front page there now, with a "coming soon" message of sorts. So, the new web store we'll be introducing some time this spring, will be called "SoundSwim." It'll be located at:

Austere

PART B> PROJECTS COMING ALONG SOON, BUT NOT THIS MONTH OR NEXTNebula | The Path of White Clouds 2008

Not to be a kill-joy, but there's been over a dozen bands named "Nebula" since the '60's but it's currently owned by the Sub Pop label signed band, who've sued a couple others, since trademarks must be defended, so you might want to pass on a name change, as if Sub Pop ever sees this CD, their legal dept. which takes up a whole floor now, will have to sue the band and Hypnos. Really, it's just asking for a headache.

Plus, while we're sure the musick is great, we always wonder about bands who have the same name as a couple others - seems to lack originality which is necessary for art wethinks. "Metallica" was original and ground-breaking. Sword, Swords, The Swords, Swords Project, Swords of <something>... smacks of laziness or lack of creativity, no? No offense intended, but serious about Sub Pop suing, we know ppl who work there and if they see this name used, the lawyers will come like attack dogs. Just a head's up, yo. We're sure no one will care but we know of two cases where Sub Pop sued and they have on-staff lawyers....

Information about the Binary compilation, such as submission guidelines and limitations, will be posted in February, most likely. You'll probably be able to find the information here, or on the Hypnos news page, or on the MySpace blogs for Hypnos and Binary. We're not ready to start taking submissions yet, but thanks for your interest.

PART B> PROJECTS COMING ALONG SOON, BUT NOT THIS MONTH OR NEXTNebula | The Path of White Clouds 2008

Not to be a kill-joy, but there's been over a dozen bands named "Nebula" since the '60's but it's currently owned by the Sub Pop label signed band, who've sued a couple others, since trademarks must be defended, so you might want to pass on a name change, as if Sub Pop ever sees this CD, their legal dept. which takes up a whole floor now, will have to sue the band and Hypnos. Really, it's just asking for a headache.

Plus, while we're sure the musick is great, we always wonder about bands who have the same name as a couple others - seems to lack originality which is necessary for art wethinks. "Metallica" was original and ground-breaking. Sword, Swords, The Swords, Swords Project, Swords of <something>... smacks of laziness or lack of creativity, no? No offense intended, but serious about Sub Pop suing, we know ppl who work there and if they see this name used, the lawyers will come like attack dogs. Just a head's up, yo. We're sure no one will care but we know of two cases where Sub Pop sued and they have on-staff lawyers....

We're aware of the problem of potential confusion or conflict, when artists select names that are not unique. This is something we're dealing with on more than one front, right now.

We can't exactly tell Nebula they can't be called "Nebula" since they already released two albums under that name, and it would be weird and confusing to release the Path of White Clouds album under some other name, like "Gigi and Mathias's Euro-Ambient All-Star Band." We don't have a definite solution on this one right now, but in the case of one other such conflict, we're releasing the album by the artist "Sense" under the name "Sense (Robert Logan)" to avoid confusion with several other artists known as "Sense."

I feel strongly that people starting a recording project, or a record label, or a magazine or web site, or any other venture that requires the choosing of a name, need to choose carefully so as not to conflict with others using that exact name, or cause confusion with others similarly named. In the age of Google and Wikipedia and Discogs, it's not too hard to check around. Even Hypnos was originally named something different, back in 95-96 before we actually got around to releasing CDs, but the name was changed when a conflict was discovered.

I had no idea at that time the label would ever be a real label known to people outside my immediate area. I thought I might sell a few CDs to local stores on consignment, so I gave up the name because I discovered there was a Portland band, sort of a goth/industrial group, called Nocturne. I had a web site started, and a logo, and an email address (but no web domain yet), but I gave it up due to the conflict and started thinking about other names.

Information about the Binary compilation, such as submission guidelines and limitations, will be posted in February, most likely. You'll probably be able to find the information here, or on the Hypnos news page, or on the MySpace blogs for Hypnos and Binary. We're not ready to start taking submissions yet, but thanks for your interest.